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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and witnessed automated sea creatures floating through the air. Yet this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest creative installation for this immense space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a winding construction based on the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Inside, they can meander around or unwind on pelts, tuning in on earphones to community leaders telling stories and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It may sound whimsical, but the artwork pays tribute to a obscure natural marvel: scientists have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it inhales by 80°C, helping the animal to endure in harsh Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "produces a sense of smallness that you as a individual are not superior over nature." She is a former reporter, children's author, and environmental activist, who is from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to change your perspective or evoke some humbleness," she continues.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine design is one of several components in Sara's engaging commission showcasing the culture, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced oppression, integration policies, and repression of their dialect by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the art also highlights the group's challenges associated with the global warming, property rights, and external control.

Metaphor in Components

At the extended entrance incline, there's a soaring, 26-meter formation of skins entangled by electrical wires. It serves as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein solid layers of ice form as changing temperatures thaw and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' main winter nourishment, fungus. This phenomenon is a outcome of climate change, which is happening up to four times faster in the Far North than globally.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they hauled trailers of animal nutrition on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute by hand. The herd gathered round us, digging the icy ground in vain for mossy morsels. This costly and labour-intensive procedure is having a significant influence on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. Yet the alternative is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are perishing—some from hunger, others drowning after falling into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the installation is a tribute to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The sculpture also underscores the sharp divergence between the modern interpretation of electricity as a resource to be harnessed for profit and existence and the Sámi outlook of life force as an inherent essence in creatures, humans, and land. This venue's past as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by regional governments. In their efforts to be exemplars for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi assert their human rights, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's hard being such a small minority to stand your ground when the reasons are grounded in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has adopted the discourse of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find better ways to persist in patterns of expenditure."

Family Struggles

She and her relatives have themselves clashed with the national administration over its tightening regulations on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's sibling initiated a set of unsuccessful lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a extended set of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal screen of 400 cranial remains, which was shown at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

For many Sámi, art appears the only sphere in which they can be understood by outsiders. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|